Artist Bob Wade stands in his Smokesax that he built as it is removed from its home at 6025 Richmond, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, in Houston. The 70-foot-tall structure is constructed out of car parts, oil field pipes and a surfboard, as well as an entire VW Beetle that forms the U-joint at its base.

Artist Bob Wade stands in his Smokesax that he built as it is removed from its home at 6025 Richmond, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, in Houston. The 70-foot-tall structure is constructed out of car parts, oil field

A crew is cutting Bob Wade's "Smokesax" sculpture into sections, which are being loaded onto trucks for the 13-mile move from Richmond Avenue to the The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art at 2402 Munger.

A crew is cutting Bob Wade's "Smokesax" sculpture into sections, which are being loaded onto trucks for the 13-mile move from Richmond Avenue to the The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art at 2402 Munger.

Photo: Cody Duty, Staff

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Bob "Daddy-O" Wade's 70-foot tall sculpture "Smokesax" will be moved Thursday from 6025 Richmond (site of the defunct Billy Blues nightclub) to a warehouse belonging to the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art. It will eventually be displayed on Orange Show property.

Bob "Daddy-O" Wade's 70-foot tall sculpture "Smokesax" will be moved Thursday from 6025 Richmond (site of the defunct Billy Blues nightclub) to a warehouse belonging to the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art.

The monumental sculpture made of car parts, oil field pipes, a surfboard and an entire VW Beetle was a landmark for the now-defunct Billy Blues nightclub on the Richmond Avenue strip near the Galleria. But it wasn't sounding the right tune for the new sports bar coming to the site, Diablo Loco Wings y Mas.

With Wade overseeing the process, "Smokesax" was sawed into five sections Thursday.

Orange Show spokesman Jonathan Beitler said the parts are being loaded onto flatbed trucks Friday and should begin their 13-mile trip to the organization's Munger Street warehouse around 3 or 4 p.m. Its permanent location is yet to be determined.

"Smokesax" was restored three years ago, but the bill for transporting it - and then welding the sculpture back together, installing it and maintaining it - will come to more than $40,000, an amount that wasn't in the Orange Show's budget.

Beitler said several major donations have come in this week to help with the project, including $10,000 each from Kensington and Orange Show supporter Dan Moody.

A few former volunteers of the organization groused on Facebook Thursday that Wade's work didn't fit the Orange Show's mission of preserving "visionary" art. Beitler disagreed, and noted that Wade has a long history with the group.

"The Orange Show is a supporter and preserver of folk art and folk art environments, and this is a piece of Texas folk art that needs to be preserved for future generations to see," Beitler said. "And it's an iconic piece for Houston."